Gardaí labelled ‘worse than Black and Tans’ in street row

Gardaí were abused as “Free State bastards” and “worse than Black and Tans” by a man who felt he had been unfairly singled out during a violent incident in Cork.

At Cork District Court yesterday, Stephen Murnane, aged 31, of Apt 1, 5 Verdon Row, Wellington Rd, Cork, denied being threatening and abusive or refusing to give his name and address to gardaí.

At the height of the incident, Murnane had to be held down by three gardaí and handcuffed, and he shouted back at them that if they took off their uniforms and badges he would fight them one-on-one.

Judge Leo Malone said after hearing the contested case the only proper thing Murnane did was to apologise for those comments from the witness box.

Judge Malone fined Murnane €750 for being threatening and abusive, or 90 days in prison in default of payment. For refusing to give his name and address, Murnane got a four-month suspended jail sentence.

Gardaí Tony Devane and Colin Dowling of the Regional Support Unit were dealing with a violent situation on Patrick St, Cork, at around 3am on Feb 6.

They said that as they were dealing with this situation, they saw Murnane across the street holding up the finger at them in a threatening manner. Murnane denied this happened.

The gardaí approached him for no reason. They said he refused to give his name and address.

Murnane said he was never asked for his address and that when asked his name he replied: “You know my name, Stephen Murnane.”

Murnane said he heard someone say: “Fuck him, put him on the ground,” and was then knocked to the ground and hit his head against the garda car as he fell. He said it was only as he was being handcuffed that he made the abusive comments, and that he only did so because he was being abused.

Gardaí said Murnane was acting in a threatening manner from before the time that they crossed the road to him, and that he was trying to incite the crowd.